I'm glad to report that this morning's service went well :)

Opening words from me were on the lines of "Good morning, welcome and please take your seats - and if you're getting a coffee mine's a white, without!" That soon settled people and I did get a coffee delivered to me :D

Things went smoothly and we had fun with a bit of improvised acting with me playing King David leading the Ark of the Covenant into the tent. Very noisy, very silly and great for all the adults to behave worse than the kids who were safely out in the hall at that point!

I ended up in charge of decorating the church after the service. I did have lots of willing helpers :) The tree they decorated with great love and creativity is now gracing the front porch. Our fibre optic tree is at the front of the church and there's a silver ball hanging from the roof (told you we can do tacky!)

I did get one adult big uppity child to help put the garlands around the pillars. It's not quite right, and the older children ended up copying what he had done, but all pillars have garlands and alterations can be made in the week.

I did say "thank you" to them afterwards. Praise is so important in a critical and cynical world.

It never fails to amaze me just how willing the kids can be to help out - they just love being involved and it does give them a feeling of belonging to the church in their own right.

Strange how all the parents have the comment "I wish I could get them to..."